


Ocean Deep

by SainaTsukino



Series: Follow your heart [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant, F/M, I'm Sorry, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, as depressing as canon I guess, obiwan/sadness, one sided obiwan / anakin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 08:11:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9875615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SainaTsukino/pseuds/SainaTsukino
Summary: Between the two of them, it was Padme who figured out first. Her mother had despaired of Padme not having anything more distinctive as her mark. It could have been a thousand backyards, on a thousand planets. Still, the Force must have been with her. The minute that she walked into Anakin Skywalker’s home on Tatooine, she knew.His soulmark had always been a blessing. He could feel it all the time, the blue water flowing down his calves. It was always cool and refreshing, a blessing for a desert slave like him. There was nothing else specific about it, but until he was nine, Anakin hadn’t actually realised that that could be a problem. There couldn’t be that many planets in the galaxy that had that much water, surely?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Continuation of my soulmate drabbles, in which Anakin and Padme are destined for eachother and meanwhile, Obi-Wan suffers.
> 
> I think that I'll either do a Force Awakens or a Clone Troopers one next. Probably. Also I have to get to Ahsoka cuz I have PLANS for her
> 
> So this is as un-edited as the last part of this serie. Sorry! I'll fix up the mistakes later I swear

Between the two of them, it was Padme that figured it out first.

“It’s not about where a person is,” she later tried to explain to Anakin. “It isn’t even about where they live. It’s a state of mind. The mark is a representation of what they call home, they feeling that they get about certain places. That’s why it can take a while for a mark to change, even though the person no longer live there.”

It was a school of thought, and Anakin would later learn that there were about a million of those. Soulmarks weren’t exactly an easy subject, nor were they a precise science. But, at the time, he didn’t really care. If it came out of Padme’s mouth, then it had to be true.

Soulmarks could be just about anything. A mountain range, the skyline of a town, sunlight on water. It could be whole planets or just tiny parts of them. In her case, her soulmate mark was incredibly simple: a windowsill, looking out onto a cluttered backyard. A threadbare pillow and a couple of droid parts were resting on the sill, as if someone had been working there and had just left to go fetch something.

It felt cozy, but it also exuded a sad, lonely air. Padme would often rub at her neck, when she wasn’t wearing the white paint and could afford the tell. The sun was always shining through that window, but oftentimes it felt scorching in a way that the young Naboo queen was unaccustomed to.

Her mother had despaired of Padme not having anything more distinctive as her mark. It could have been a thousand backyards, on a thousand planets. Still, the Force must have been with her. The minute that she walked into Anakin Skywalker’s home on Tatooine, she knew.

She knew, and she didn’t tell. Anakin was nine, her planet was in danger, and Padme figured that the timing wasn’t exactly convenient. She had no doubt in her mind that they would meet each other again, once everything was dealt with and no one was trying to kill her anymore.

Scratch that: She would _ensure_ that they would meet each other again.

Ten years still passed. In the meantime, Anakin eventually also figured it out.

\--

 

His soulmark had always been a blessing. He could feel it all the time, the blue water flowing down his calves. It was always cool and refreshing, a blessing for a desert slave like him. Sometimes, when he concentrated extra hard, he could almost hear the soft murmuring of the waves, too. When the days felt too long and Watto worked him extra hard, Anakin would rub his hands over his legs, letting the flowing water soothe him.

He didn’t really have anything else distinctive that could help him guess the whereabouts of his soulmate. There was no building, or even a fish in the stream to give him a hint. Until he was nine, Anakin hadn’t actually realised that that could be a problem. There couldn’t be that many planets in the galaxy that had that much water, surely?

He was wrong. He was really, really wrong. Streams and rivers were a surprisingly common thing, actually. Who would have thought? One time, he breached the subject with Obi-Wan, and had the distinctive feeling that the older man was laughing at him. Until he launched into yet again another lecture about attachment, that is.

Anakin didn’t really understand the Jedi’s stance on soulmates, to be honest. If the marks were a gift of the Force, why would they reject them?

Other times, Obi-Wan was sad. Anakin knew that his own mark was on his arm, hidden under wrappings that he never, ever, took off. Granted, Obi-Wan was always sad. But sometimes he would get a faraway look on his face and rub his arm unconsciously, and he always looked extra sad then.

For about three years in his teens, Anakin had been working up the courage to ask Obi-Wan about his soulmark. There was just… a feeling. Something told him that it was important. That he should ask, and needle until he got an answer. Nothing that made his master that sad should exist, and if he could just get a glimpse of it, then maybe he could find Obi-Wan’s soulmate for him. Maybe that would help to dispel the heaviness that he’d borne since Qui-Gon’s death.

But then Anakin met Padme again, and something in his head sort of just clicked. The moment that he met her eyes, it was like everything fell into place, and he knew that she felt the same. How could she not? They were meant to be!

He honestly kind of forgot about Obi-Wan’s soulmark for a while.

\--

 

“Are you happy with the Jedi, Anakin?” She asked once, rubbing the golden spires of the temple on her neck.

He stopped what he was doing (ugh, mission reports) and stared at her. “Why do you ask?”

He didn’t answer her question, because he didn’t really think that it applied. Being a Jedi wasn’t about being _happy._ That wasn’t the point.

She grimaced and stopped rubbing the mark, putting her choker back on with careful movements. “It’s just that it took a long time for my mark to settle. I was worried that you weren’t feeling at home on Coruscant. Even now, sometimes it… flickers.”

“We can’t all be like you,” he replied, patting his legs where his own mark was still the same running water, despite Padme living on Coruscant more often than on Naboo now. “Home isn’t really a place for me. Home is people.” And he grinned his most charming smile at her. “So it doesn’t really matter where I am.”

Padme smiled back, and carefully didn’t mention that she worried that one day, what she would have on her neck wouldn’t be the temple or her apartment anymore, but a star destroyer.

She hoped that the war would never become her husband’s home.

\--

 

There was a legend that sometimes, even after your soulmate was deceased, you could still see the faint impression of colours in your mark. That sometimes, the ghost of a place would appear in place of the oppressive black, like an afterimage after you close your eyes.

Vader didn’t know.

Obi-Wan had taken all that was left of his soul from him. He had taken Padme, and turned her against him, and when that wasn’t enough, he’d taken his mark along with his legs, too.

One day, he would take Obi-Wan’s life.

**Author's Note:**

> To the commenter that speculated about Vader not knowing that Obi-Wan is on Tatooine because he lost his marks along his limbs: AHAHAHA actually this is worse. Sorry I usually like Obi-Wan I swear


End file.
